“Refashioning Jouissance for the Age of the Imaginary”

The question of jouissance today as reflected in fashion and its changes -- or no changes. They reflect the arrangements and rearrangements between the sexes

Stage Left: A Review of Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left

Reviews the three way conversation among Ernesto Laclau, Slavoj Zizek, and Judith Butler on leftist political theories of hegemony and universality and social change. My essay introduces the concept of a "Negative Universal" for there first time

Posodabljanje užitka za dobo imaginarnega

Using contemporary fashion (both “high” and “low”) as my focus for analysis, I apply Lacan’s insight that sexual difference (feminine/masculine) is an effect of divergent psychical and bodily logics that guide a subject’s relation to jouissance. I point out Lacan’s growing reliance on Freud’s 1921 Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (which demonstrated the pressure for group conformity in dress, and overcoming gender distinctions) for his understanding of sexual difference in relation to social order. I point out that Lacan used Freud’s vision of an ego-based rather than a subject-based society for his analysis of capitalist/university discourse in his 1969 Seminar XVII; and I argue that Freud’s text also inspired Lacan’s subsequent exploration of the logic of femininity (a heretofore neglected topic) in Seminar XX 1972-3 and in Télévision in 1975. Late Lacan thus grounds my argument that postmodern/capitalist culture is dominated in its management of enjoyment – its ethos, its economics and its fashions – by only the masculine model for jouissance. I ask that we consider entertaining ideas about what forming our culture on the feminine model of jouissance might be like.V svoji analizi, osredotočeni na sodobno modo (tako »visoko« kot »nizko«), se opiram na Lacanov uvid, da je seksualna razlika (ženska/moški) posledica razhajajočih se psihičnih in telesnih logik, ki usmerjajo subjektov odnos do užitka. V prispevku ponazorim vpliv Freudovega dela »Množična psihologija in analiza jaza« (ki je prikazalo pritisk k skupinsko konformnem načinu oblačenja in preseganju spolne razlike)na Lacanovo razumevanje seksualne razlike v razmerju do družbenega reda. Pri tem opozarjam, da se je Lacan v Seminarju XVII iz leta 1969 pri svoji analizi kapitalističnega/univerzitetnega diskurza, opiral na Freudovo videnje družbe, ki se je bolj opiralo na jaz kakor na subjekta. V tej zvezi trdim, da je Freudov tekst navdihnil tudi kasnejša Lacanova raziskovanja ženske logike (dotlej zanemarjeno tematiko) v Seminarju XX iz leta 1972-3 in Televiziji iz leta 1975. Moj argument, da postmoderno/kapitalistično kulturo pri upravljanju z užitkom določa zgolj moški model užitka: njegov ethos, ekonomija in moda, se torej opira na poznega Lacana. V premislek želim predlagati, da si poskusimo zamisliti, kako bi bilo videti formiranje naše kulture iz perspektive ženskega modela užitka

Conspicuous consumption of the elite: Social and self-congruity in tourism choices

This paper relies on social and economic psychology to explore how the travel choices of Portuguese citizens, with different status levels in their daily lives, perceive and adopt different conspicuous travel patterns because of public exposure. To account for the moderated role of public exposure on conspicuous travel patterns, 36 Portuguese citizens were interviewed. Q-methods were applied to explore the varying senses of conspicuous travel choices among citizens with different levels of public exposure, both individually and relative to each other. Complementary qualitative methods were applied, in order to explore how the interviewees construct tourism conspicuous meanings that match their social or self-representations. The results suggest that social contexts moderate the ways in which individuals perceive and experience conspicuous travel. Further, the results show that public groups with higher exposure tend to prefer subtle signals of conspicuousness, in order to differentiate themselves from the mainstream

"The City at the 'End of History'"

Lacan notes that no economist has ever thought to ask, "What is wealth?" We need to ask if there is a "capitalist unconscious" and how it shapes our cities today. In particular I focus on architecture and its new directions

Why Culture? A Psychoanalytic Speculation

A speculative theory of the origination of culture per se in the revolt against "the Master" or owner of all goods at the dawn of human society and culture's evolution today being countered by and "anti-culture" set up to prevent cultural progress and greater social equality